Drifting Back To God
God Doesn’t Consult Your Past to Determine Your Future! Every day is a new opportunity to return to the fold.
Is it possible to know God and yet be far from God? Perhaps you’ve had the experience of drifting away from God.
Something like that happened to Naomi. Ten years passed since she and her husband and their two sons left Bethlehem for the fields of Moab. They left because of the famine in their homeland, intending to go back when the famine subsided. Their intentions were good, but nothing worked out the way they intended.
Naomi’s husband Elimelech died. Then her two sons died.
What do you do when life shatters your dreams and leaves you with a broken heart? We find the answer in Ruth 1:6-22. The Hebrew text contains a word that appears multiple times in this passage. It’s a word meaning “turn” or “return.”
Naomi knew the time had come to return, both literally and spiritually. This week we will trace the steps she takes on the way from Moab to Bethlehem.
Sooner or later, most of us will take a similar journey to Naomi. It’s good to be aware of the steps she took as they can guide our journey home—we all need to go back to Bethlehem sooner or later!
Start where you are. “She and her daughters-in-law set out to return from the territory of Moab….” (Ruth 1:6-7).
2. Count the cost. Jesus said, “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27). When Orpah left, Naomi tried to convince Ruth to return to Moab with her. She knew it would be hazardous for a young Moabite widow to suddenly show up in Jewish territory.
One writer said that if Ruth went to Bethlehem, she would be as welcome as a ham sandwich at a bar mitzvah!
Naomi knows life for a Jewish widow is hard enough; it will be infinitely harder for a young widow from Moab. She is an outsider with no citizenship—she is an alien in the land of promise.
These realities make Ruth’s words so amazing! “For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried” (Ruth 1:16-17).
Her commitment is personal, voluntary and complete. Ruth binds herself to Naomi forever. Naomi is now speechless. What can you say to love like that?
3. Go back to the place of blessing. Like Naomi, let us not give up on God just because things have gone badly for us.
When Christ died, he showed us God’s grace covers all our sins, including the ones that embarrass us the most. Don’t turn away because you’ve made some wrong turns in your life.
Someone wisely said, “God doesn’t consult your past to determine your future.” Thank God this is true! And it’s just as true for us as it was for Naomi.
See you on Sabbath at 11 a.m.!
Your pastor,
Duff
